Do you own a comic shop, a record store, bookstore, or cafe? Do you work at a library or some other place of business frequented by comics readers? Have you seen our snazzy new poster? Would you like to help us promote Read Comics in Public Day?
Good news, we’re giving away a limited number of free posters to worthy locations. If you can put one to good use, please drop us a line at readcomicsinpublic@gmail.com (due to financial limitations, we’re only able to ship in the US).
Or you can always download and print the PDF version here. Also, we realize that this is only the first Read Comics in Public Day, but we’re also not entirely averse to the idea of August 28th tattoos — even if there?s never another Read Comics in Public Day, at least you’ll always have a handy way of remembering Jack Kirby’s birthday.
Speaking of social networks — and really, who isn’t, these days, eh? #bitingsocialcommentary Hey, what was that weird, spaceless blob? Don’t be afraid, friends, that’s just a hashtag. It’s here to help. We promise. It’s an important part of the Twittersphere. How important? Very, we’re told. So important, in fact, that we’ve made an official hashtag for International Read Comics in Public Day:
#readcomicsinpublic
If you’re tweeting about the event (as many of you already are), we’re asking that you employ the hashtag. Heck, if we get enough of these on the 28th, maybe we can actually trend this thing?Justin Bieber’s allowed to take a day off every once in a while (we’re pretty sure that there are child labor laws in Canada).
And hey, while your on the Twitter, why not follow are brand new account, @comicsinpublic, for the latest news and such?
Why yes, yes we do, friends. Thanks for asking. What kind of social network obsessives would we be if our lives weren?t governed by such things?and more importantly, where would we play FarmVille?
The page, like the event, is free and public and open. Invite friends, make new friends, post on the wall, Like it (that?s a thing people do on the Facebook, right?), Super Poke a zombie pioneer, reminisce about when Friendster was a thing that everyone was on.
We snapped this shot of Marc Maron before his recent two-show appearance at Comix in Manhattan’s Meat Packing District.
The comedian doesn’t let things like New York traffic, pre-show jitters, or that dude on the BlackBerry in the background deter his enjoyment of the Galacta one-shot given to him by our pal, Marvel editor Jordan D. White.
We first met Maron when he was the cohost of the sadly now-defunct Air America Radio video show, Breakroom Live with comedian/wonk, Sam Seder. Maron is currently the host of the utterly fantastic WTF, an intimate, weekly look at the inner-workings of standup comedian — it isn’t always pretty.
Comics fans should start with Maron’s terrific interview with Beg the Question author, Bob Fingerman. Maron also wrote the forward to Fingerman’s latest graphic novel, From the Ashes.
Who is this friendly looking fellow? Why that’s Timmy Williams, Portland resident, chicken farmer, and Daily Cross Hatch contributor. I’m told that he also appears on television from time to time.
Williams is enjoying Kim Deitch’s The Stuff of Dreams on a bench on the outskirts of beautiful Court Square Park in scenic Long Island City, New York. Also, is that a faded image of Batman on his shirt? You bet your bat-ass it is!
You can read Williams’s comic columns over here. And you can catch the latest season of his sketch comedy program, The Whitest Kids U Know Fridays at 10PM on IFC.
Here’s a piece of the official Read Comics in Public poster, designed by Robert Sergel, the Cambridge, MA-based artist behind the Sparkplug series, Eschew. We gave Sergel the words, and he spun them into something really exquisite — a single sheet instruction pamphlet of sorts, aimed at driving home the purpose of our annual event in a way that no single blog post ever truly could.
You can find a full-sized downloadable PDF of the poster here. We’re encouraging everyone to print out a copy — or ten — and hang it in your place of business (we’re looking at you, comic shop owners), school, or home. Anywhere, really, without “Do Not Post” signs.
And hey, if you’re still looking for some titles to read in public, why not consider the fine work of Mr. Sergel?
Surely you recognize that lad, second from the right, reading a copy of The Beano on the cover of this John Mayall and the Blues Breakers record. Yep, that’s a young Eric Clapton. The blues guitar legend is too invested in his issue of the popular British kids comic to make eye contact with the photographer.
Thanks to Clapton’s choice of reading material, 1966′s Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton also came to be affectionately known as “The Beano Album.” Clapton left the band in mid-1966.
We’re not sure what ever became of old slowhand, but The Beano continues to this day.
This is Anita Pallenberg. She’s an actress, a former-model, and a fashion designer. Once upon a time, she was also married to Rolling Stones Guitarist, Keith Richards. When we first mentioned this project to Fantagraphics Comics? Eric Reynolds, he sent us this image, a screen cap he pulled from the new documentary, Stones in Exile.
The image of Pallenberg was taken during the recording of the Stones’ 1972 masterpiece, Exile on Mainstreet. That book she?s cradling is L’Ile Noire (The Black Island), one of Herge’s Tin Tin books.
Still think you’re too cool to read comics in public?
This is Jack Kirby. On August 28th, 2010, he would have been 93. Who is this old fellow, you ask? Why, he’s one of the most celebrated artists in all of comics. He had a hand in creating some of the medium’s most beloved and longest lasting heroes, including Captain America, Fantastic Four, the Hulk, and the X-Men. In the 70s, he reinvented the genre once again with the epic, otherworldly, and borderline-psychedelic Fourth World.
Welcome, friends, to the official site for Read Comics in Public Day, a new — and hopefully annual — celebration of sequential art. On August 28th (the birthday of comics legend Jack Kirby), we’re asking you, the local comics reader, to take to the streets and show the world that you are a proud comics reader.
Take an hour out of your Saturday to read a comic on a plane, on a train, on a boat or with a goat. Celebrate your love of one of today’s most vibrant art forms, and maybe make a few friends along the way.
For more information, please check out our About page and The Daily Cross Hatch. There will be plenty more information to come in the weeks leading up to the very first Read Comics in Public Day. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop us a line at readcomicsinpublic@gmail.com.
